How to get help after a natural disaster

Safety first, and that includes hazards that are not obvious. Floodwater carries sewage, chemicals and debris, and electrical systems that have been submerged must be inspected before power is restored. Fire-damaged buildings can contain asbestos in older cladding, eaves, fencing and flooring, and disturbing it during clean-up is a serious health risk. Do not enter a damaged structure until it has been assessed.

Photograph and film everything before you move it. Wide shots of each room and the exterior, close-ups of damage, serial numbers on appliances, water lines on walls, and the contents of cupboards and wardrobes. Do this even where the damage seems obviously total, because the insurer's assessment is built from what can be shown, not from what you describe.

Keep samples of damaged materials where you safely can — a section of carpet, a piece of flooring, a swatch of curtain. These establish quality and grade, which is what determines the replacement value of items that no longer exist.

Make an inventory as you go rather than at the end. A room-by-room list with approximate purchase dates and values, supported by whatever receipts, bank statements or photographs you can find, is the single most useful document in a contents claim. Insurers do not expect receipts for everything; they do expect a coherent list.

Contact your insurer as early as you can, even before you know the extent of the damage. Lodging the claim starts the clock on your policy's temporary accommodation benefit, which most home policies include and which many people do not claim because they did not know it existed. Keep every receipt for accommodation, meals and emergency purchases.

Do not throw away damaged property before the insurer has agreed you can. Insurers accept that spoiled food and hazardous debris must go immediately — photograph it first. For everything else, wait, or get written confirmation that disposal is agreed.

Replace critical documents early. Birth certificates, driver licences, Medicare cards and citizenship certificates are usually replaced at no cost after a declared disaster, and Services Australia has a specific process for proving identity when your identity documents were destroyed. That process exists precisely because the normal points-based system is impossible for someone whose documents burned.

Two Commonwealth payments matter for individuals, and they are only available when the government activates them for a specific disaster and specific local government areas. Check whether your area has been activated before assuming either is available — DisasterAssist lists activated events and the assistance attached to each.

The Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment is a one-off lump sum, paid at one rate per adult and a lower rate per child under 16 in your care. Amounts are set by government and change, so confirm the current figures rather than relying on what was paid after a previous event.

AGDRP is for people directly and seriously affected: where the disaster caused major damage to your home or to a major asset at your home, where you were seriously injured, or where you are an immediate family member of an Australian citizen or resident who died or is missing. It is not compensation for inconvenience, and applications from people whose homes were not damaged are routinely rejected.

The Disaster Recovery Allowance is different. It is short-term income support for people aged 16 and over who lost income as a direct result of a declared disaster, paid fortnightly for up to 13 weeks from the date the income loss started, at the maximum equivalent rate of JobSeeker Payment or Youth Allowance depending on your circumstances. It is aimed at employees and sole traders whose workplace, farm or business was affected.

You can receive both. They answer different problems — one is a lump sum for damage, the other replaces lost income — and claiming one does not exclude the other.

Claim online through myGov with a linked Centrelink account. The claim is short by Centrelink standards and asks about the damage, your residence and your income loss. If your online access has been destroyed along with everything else, the Services Australia emergency information line handles claims by phone.

You must be an Australian resident or meet the alternative residence rules, and eligible New Zealand citizens living in Australia are also covered. Residence rules for disaster support are published separately and differ from the rules for ordinary payments.

Expect an identity check. Services Australia publishes a specific process for proving identity for natural disaster support, designed for people whose documents were lost — use it rather than trying to satisfy the standard identity requirements.

Most disaster assistance in Australia flows through the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements, under which the Commonwealth may fund a substantial share of the assistance while the state or territory government decides which areas receive assistance and what form it takes. The practical consequence is that you apply to your state, not to Canberra, for most of it.

Typical state assistance includes immediate personal hardship payments for emergency food, clothing and accommodation; re-establishment or structural assistance grants for uninsured or underinsured homeowners on lower incomes; clean-up and debris removal programs; grants and concessional loans for small businesses, primary producers and not-for-profits; and freight subsidies for farmers.

Eligibility for state grants is frequently means-tested and frequently restricted to people who were not insured or were insufficiently insured, on the reasoning that public money should not duplicate an insurance payout. That makes the sequence matter: lodging an insurance claim does not disqualify you, but the assessment of state assistance often waits on the outcome.

Recovery centres are set up after major events, usually in affected towns, bringing Services Australia, state agencies, insurers, legal assistance and charities into one room. They are far more efficient than dealing with each organisation separately, and staff at them know which grants are open. If one is operating near you, go.

Local councils run their own arrangements — waste levy waivers, free tip access for disaster debris, rate deferrals and fast-tracked rebuilding approvals. These are rarely advertised widely and are worth asking about directly.

Charities and community organisations administer a large share of the money donated after major disasters, often through separate application processes with their own criteria. The Australian Red Cross and state-based appeals are the usual channels, and applying to one does not affect government assistance.

Keep a single file with every application, reference number, assessor name and date. Six months into a recovery, the ability to say precisely when you lodged something and what you were told is what resolves disputes with agencies that have lost track of your file.

After a major event the Insurance Council of Australia may declare a significant event or an insurance catastrophe. That declaration triggers coordinated industry arrangements: a taskforce, prioritised claims handling for affected areas, and an escalation path for complaints. It is worth knowing whether it has been declared for your event, because it changes what you can insist on.

General insurers operate under an industry code of practice that sets timeframes for responding to a claim, making decisions and handling complaints, with extended arrangements after declared catastrophes. If your insurer is missing those timeframes, say so in writing and cite the code — it is the most effective single sentence in a stalled claim.

Understand what your policy actually covers before arguing about it. Flood, storm surge and actions of the sea are defined terms and are covered differently across policies. Bushfire is usually covered by the fire peril, but there are often waiting periods after a policy is taken out. Landslip and subsidence are frequently excluded or restricted. Read the product disclosure statement rather than relying on what you remember being told at purchase.

You are entitled to a copy of the assessor's report and the scope of works. Ask for both. Where you disagree with the assessment, you can obtain your own builder's quote and put it to the insurer, and you can ask for the claim to be reviewed internally.

Cash settlement versus rebuild is the decision that carries the most risk. A cash settlement gives you control and moves every subsequent risk — cost escalation, builder failure, hidden damage — to you. Rebuild through the insurer's builder gives less control but keeps the insurer responsible for completing the work. Neither is right in general. If you take a cash settlement, insist on a detailed scope of works so you know what the figure was calculated to cover.

Underinsurance surfaces at this point. The sum insured has to cover demolition, debris removal, professional fees, and rebuilding to current building standards, which after bushfires can mean substantially higher construction requirements than the house originally met. Ask the insurer to itemise how the sum insured was applied, and if there is a shortfall, ask about state structural assistance grants before making decisions.

If the claim is refused, delayed unreasonably or settled at a figure you dispute, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority handles insurance disputes free of charge. Complain to the insurer first and get the decision in writing, then lodge. AFCA determinations bind the insurer if you accept them, and after declared catastrophes it operates expedited processes.

Talk to your lender early. Australian banks have hardship obligations and, after declared disasters, generally offer payment deferrals, interest arrangements and fee waivers to affected customers. A hardship arrangement agreed in advance is very different from missed payments explained afterwards, both practically and on your credit file.

The tax position is worth checking rather than assuming. Disaster payments are treated differently from each other for tax purposes, businesses may be able to defer lodgement and payment obligations, and losses and rebuilding costs have their own treatment for rental properties and businesses. The ATO publishes disaster-specific support and applies deferrals automatically in some declared areas.

Take care choosing a builder. Post-disaster areas attract unlicensed operators, door-knockers offering roof or tree work for cash, and contractors who take deposits and disappear. Check the licence with your state's building regulator, use a written contract, never pay a large deposit up front, and be suspicious of anyone who found you rather than the reverse.

Charity and government impersonation scams spike after disasters, targeting both donors and victims. Nobody from Services Australia will ask for your myGov password, and payments are never released on payment of a fee. Verify any unexpected contact by calling the agency on a number you looked up independently.

Rebuild timelines in disaster-affected regions are long, because everyone is rebuilding at once with the same local trades. Plan accommodation and finances around a longer horizon than the first estimate. Where you are renting while rebuilding, check how long your policy's temporary accommodation benefit runs — it is usually capped in months or dollars, and it commonly expires before the rebuild finishes.

The mental health effects are well documented and they arrive late. Anxiety, sleep disruption, irritability and difficulty making decisions are ordinary responses that often peak months after the event, and they affect children on a different timeline from adults. A GP mental health treatment plan gives Medicare-subsidised sessions, and after major disasters additional services are usually funded in affected regions.

Free counselling and crisis support is available nationally at any hour, and healthdirect can point you to local services. Financial counsellors — free, independent and not connected to any lender — are the right people for the debt side, and they deal with post-disaster households constantly.

Finally, when the rebuild is done, review the insurance. The sum insured that was wrong last time will be wrong again unless it is recalculated against current local building costs, including the compliance requirements that now apply to your rebuilt home.